The Supreme Court on Friday expressed the inclination to quash the money laundering case against some of the accused in relation to the alleged Chhattisgarh liquor policy scam. The court observed that there was no predicate offence and proceeds of crime and hence no money laundering.
A bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan was hearing the writ petitions filed by six accused in the case, including IAS officer Atul Tuteja and his son Yash Tuteja. During the hearing, Justice AS Oka told Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that if there is no predicate offence, then there is no proceed of crime.
Earlier, after considering the petitioners’ argument that the ED case was predicated on an alleged violation of the Income Tax Act, which is not a scheduled offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the top court had stayed the proceedings against the petitioners. Today, Justice Oka remarked that the complaint can’t be entertained since there was no predicate offence.
Responding, ASG Raju said that a fresh predicate offence was registered against the petitioners based on which a separate ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report) would be filed by nodal investigation agency. Subsequently, Justice Oka asked if the aforesaid report is done.
To this, ASG replied that due to a stay on the subsequent predicate offence, the fresh complaint couldn’t operate. Justice Oka underlined that the challenge in the case relates to the present complaint pending against the accused.
The judge stated that let the complaint go, adding that as far as the case is concerned there is no predicate offence, therefore there cannot be any proceeds of crime, and hence the complaint needs to be quashed.
The apex court then asked ASG Raju to verify whether it is factually correct that the present proceedings arise from the same complaint challenged before the Supreme Court, where different accused were involved. The plea lodged by co-accused Karishma Dhebar, Anwar Dhebar, Arun Pati Tripathi and Siddharth Singhania were also listed along with the petitions filed by Tutejas.
On the request made by the Additional Solicitor General, the matter is next scheduled on April 8, 2024.